The Significance of Bounce Rate and How to Improve It

Companies put out significant effort to establish their brands online and to develop and roll out promotional initiatives that are geared towards attracting targeted visitors to their sites. But what if people who visit your website have trouble locating the information they need or, even worse, encounter information that is completely unrelated to what they were looking for?

A “high bounce rate,” in the world of digital marketing and SEO, is when a large percentage of a website’s visitors immediately leave without exploring the page further.

Discovering this may be unsettling, but it also gives you an opportunity to enhance your website, the user experience, and, ultimately, the metrics that matter most to you, such as conversion rates, lead generation, sales, and income.

In this article, we’ll go into the significance of bounce rates, the factors that contribute to some websites’ higher bounce rates than others, and the solutions you can implement on your own sites.

Definition of “Bounce Rate”

The term “bounce rate” refers to the percentage of site visitors who go from arriving at your site to leaving your homepage without taking any further action.

If your page has a high bounce rate, it’s because the information presented there doesn’t directly address the questions or concerns of the people who landed on it.

What do Bounce Rates Mean, and Why Do They Matter?

There are situations where the bounce rate is not an accurate indicator of the performance or an issue with your content or web pages.

Visitors who simply need to know the business’s hours may “bounce” after viewing that page, meaning they found the information they needed and then left the site.

Bounce rates, on the other hand, can be used to gauge how successfully your site is catering to its intended demographic.

What Role Does the Bounce Rate Play?

A lower conversion rate is typically associated with a higher bounce rate.

• Bounce rates may be used as an SEO signal by Google to gauge the page’s relevance to search queries.
• A high bounce rate is a sign that the content on your page is of low quality, that you have failed to connect with your audience, or that your page is of little value to them.

As a result of all of the foregoing, your firm will suffer in almost every key performance indicator.

How do Statisticians Determine the Bounce Rate?

Google Analytics (GA) makes it simple to compute the bounce rate by displaying the success of each web page as single-page views.

If you add up the number of bounces for every page on your site and divide that number by the total number of visits during that time period, Google Analytics will give you an average bounce rate for your entire website.

In addition to these key metrics, GA offers you others that are equally informative and related to them.

Statistics on: Unique visitors, Pageviews, Average Visit Duration, and More

The combination of these and the bounce rate can help you find ways to better meet the needs of your visitors.

When is the Bounce Rate Acceptable?

Bounce rates, on average, can differ greatly between sectors and types of websites (i.e., an informational blog vs. an affiliate site vs. a landing page).

But studies show that global averages are on the order of 27% to 70% and that there is always space for advancement.

The following holds true in most cases:

Rates of: 90% or higher = terrible; 70–80% = bad; 50–70% = acceptable; 30–50% = excellent

A percentage lower than 20% (possibly a tracking error)

What to Do If Your Bounce Rate Is Too High

Does your site have a larger than usual percentage of visitors that immediately leave? Do you think that you could improve? Perhaps you can, which is why we compiled these suggestions for lowering website bounce rates. The following are tried and true methods to lower your bounce rate, enhance your user experience, and generate more leads and sales.

Improve the Quality of Life for End Users

Although it may seem like a “no-brainer,” a good starting point for handling a high bounce rate is to take an objective look at the ways you can improve the overall interaction of your website, pages, brand, and services.

Tips:

Re-evaluate how user-friendly and intuitive your site’s navigation is and utilize screen-capture tools to see how users navigate it and spot any snags.

Think about getting some outside opinions by conducting a survey.

Improve the conversion rate of your webpage by focusing on the “Call to Action” and other on-page factors.

Make sure your call to action is direct, compelling, and easy to understand. Your visitor’s attention span is probably less than a minute. And above all else, make sure the content supports the CTA. Users are likely to click the back button if the page’s content does not meet their needs.

Tips:

Don’t make the user scroll to see your essential impact statements and “hook”

Don’t overwhelm them with choices.

Concentrate first on solutions and benefit statements, next on “features,” and keep the page focused on the topic at hand.

Checking Page Load Times

Learn which pages on your site are taking too long to load by using tools like Pingdom, GTmetrics, and Google PageSpeed Insights. According to studies, sites that take longer than 3 seconds to load can lose up to 40% of visitors (who then “bounce”), and every additional second of load time can decrease sales by up to 7%.

Some of your site visitors may be on slower mobile connections, so keep that in mind. A two-second load time on a desktop computer may take six seconds or more on a mobile device using a 3G connection and vice versa.

Try out some split-screen testing of your page’s content

Although it’s important to be careful when making changes to the page’s core text for SEO purposes, it’s a good idea to experiment with different headlines, calls to action, buttons, colours, and layouts, especially those that appear above the fold. It is imperative, however, that you have some baseline information against which to measure the results of the alterations.

Tips:

Make sure you have enough data/visitors to make your decisions statistically accurate; focus on testing a single variable at a time; recognize that even small changes can have a sizable effect;

Use a Variety of Media

Visitors in the modern era of digital technology are always looking for more and better multimedia. High-quality graphics and video have been shown in tests to enhance conversion rates by as much as 34%.

Consider using an opening, explainer, or video testimonial to set the tone and make sure all of the video content is relevant to the discussion at hand. Employ a graphic designer to develop significant, original artwork.

Pay Attention to Comments Made by Customers and Other Site Visitors

“the customer is always right” does not always hold true. Never let your pride or lack of follow-up prevent you from providing your audience with what they need, expect, and deserve. Even if you listen to them, they may get tired of waiting and quit on you.

Advice:

All departments should work together to better serve your audience by sharing feedback from visitors and customers.

Get comments from many sources, including message boards, social media, and review sites.

Don’t forget to check the feedback section!

Adaptability to Mobile Devices

Since mobile devices now account for more than half of all website traffic, it is crucial that your site is both mobile-friendly and responsive. If it isn’t, mobile users will quickly abandon the page if they encounter problems viewing the photos.

Advice:

Check how responsive your site is on different devices.

Make sure the call to action is legible and clickable on mobile Conduct mobile speed tests and optimizations.

Editing for Better Readability

Did you know that the typical American only has the literacy skills of someone in the eighth grade? Thus, savvy content providers are aiming at this reading level by paying attention to the language they use, as well as the structure and length of their sentences. Readers won’t stick around if you lose their attention by being unclear.

Employ simple examples to assist in demonstrating complex topics or issue points. Break up long paragraphs into smaller, more manageable ones. Use subheadings to divide text.

Make use of pop-ups that appear when there is an intent to leave

When a visitor’s mouse moves towards the browser’s “x” button, an “exit intent” pop-up window will appear to prevent them from leaving your site. When activated, a pop-up window will display standard waiting instructions or a subscription link. They may cause pause among prospective customers, and they may even be a minor annoyance.

The user should be able to quickly dismiss the pop-up by using the “back” button. The pop-up should also offer relevant and helpful information.

Have all external links open in a new window

Links to other websites are a vital part of any website, as they can provide context for the reader by revealing the original source of a piece of information or divert them to a more enjoyable or informative resource. No of the intention. If they take the place of your main content, your bounce rate will suffer.

Advice:

• Make sure any external links open in a new tab on every page
• Look for broken links
• Verify that any links you add are secure for users

Conclusion

Using calculated and well-intentioned measures to lower your bounce rate can have a significant effect on your business’s success.

The techniques and advice in this tutorial will help you evaluate your site’s bounce rate and develop a strategy to improve it.